Location: My Basement

Overview • People • Government • Economy • Trend • Analysis

The Late Night Picture Show of New Belchertown is a massive, cultured nation, ruled by Wild-Eyed Daddy-O with an iron fist, and renowned for its museums and concert halls. Its hard-nosed, hard-working, cynical population of 1.84 billion are ruled by a mostly-benevolent dictator, who grants the populace the freedom to live their own lives but watches carefully for anyone to slip up.

It is difficult to tell where the omnipresent, corrupt government stops and the rest of society begins, but it concentrates mainly on Defence, although Law & Order and Commerce are on the agenda. It meets every day to discuss matters of state in the capital city of The Hop in the Town Hall Attic. The average income tax rate is 14%. A powerhouse of a private sector is led by the Arms Manufacturing, Pizza Delivery, and Tourism industries.

Citizens who leave the country are officially classed as traitors, a typical fast food menu item could serve a small army, an increasing percentage of the population's youth have homosexual parents, and minority children spend hours bussing to schools miles away from home. Crime -- especially youth-related -- is crippling. New Belchertown's national animal is the watchhound, which teeters on the brink of extinction due to widespread deforestation, its national religion is I Go to a Hot Rod Church, and its currency is the chunk of meat.

New Belchertown is ranked 1st in My Basement and 8,099th in the world for Largest Trout Fishing Sector, scoring 4 on the Nemo Depletion Efficiency Index.

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NationStates by Max Barry, author of and